Advice for a DIQ?
A Mary Kay DIQ wrote seeking advice on becoming an ethical Sales Director in MK:
I found your site on accident over a year ago when I began my business. I pop in occasionally just out of curiosity to see what is being said. While I disagree with a lot of the points that are made, I can identify with the emotion and hurt that are behind those defenses.
I am currently in my 2nd month of DIQ, and while this is a really exciting time, I am not completely happy with the way I am being taught to do things. I.e: get production from recruiting new consultants who purchase large amounts of inventory (rather than train my current team to sell the product and consistently have a legitimate need to reorder product), put inventory orders and starter kits on my OWN credit card and have them pay me later, expect my husband to cook/clean/do laundry when I am fully capable of doing at least part if not all of that, guilt my best friends into joining by telling them I NEED them to or they aren’t my real friend, etc.
I have never had a problem with selling the product, and consistently sell $1800-$2000 every month, and I truly enjoy meeting new people at the appointments I hold. Where I am starting to lose my enthusiasm though, is in the tactics I have been taught to get orders out at the last of the month. Like offering outrageous ‘incentives.” Shouldn’t 50% profit be a good enough incentive?
I am writing because I do feel that I would make a great SALES director, but with what I have been taught so far in DIQ from my soon-to-be-senior, I can see why you all here had such a bad taste in your mouth. So I am writing to ask, what tips would you have for me to actually be an ethical, respectable, and relatable Sales Director as opposed to what is apparently and unfortunately the ‘norm’? I will not turn into what I have been seeing lately as that is against all I stand for.
Thank you for your input!
-Don’t want to be a DIQuitter
Visit the
The only way to do MLM “ethically” is to never recruit, and to never lie or mislead about the efficacy or value of the product. If the MLM product has any real market value, you should be able to make as much money as you wish through selling alone. You can hire folks directly to help you with your business so it can grow…without building a downline.
If you can’t turn a true business profit on sales alone, it is quite wrong to recruit others under you based on that possibility. Sadly, the big moneymakers in MLM are profiting off the losses in their own downline, with little or no profit from product sales.
“I am writing because I do feel that I would make a great SALES director…”
There’s your problem. MK does not keep track of retail sales. Directors’ commissions are based off of inventory orders placed by their downlines and by bringing in qualified – AKA placing a big initial inventory order – recruits. There’s no reward for actually selling product once you have it.
The reason IBCs offer so many discounts and freebies is because the market is saturated and it’s just about impossible to get sales without slashing profits.
Don’t let clichés like “DIQuitter” overcome your common sense or force you into something that’s not in line with your values.
Did your parents ever make you do an activity, like sports or Girl Scouts or music, that you hated but they wouldn’t let you quit because it was good for you in some vague way? Remember how good it felt when you finally got to quit?
If you want a career in sales… go work a career in sales. You’ll make real money, have real opportunities for advancement, and won’t be stuck in a system where the only way to get ahead is to go against your values.
“I am not completely happy with the way I am being taught to do things”
You are being taught to be a Sales Director. Remember…even if you become a Director, the DIQ process you’re experiencing now will never end. It will become your life.
If you enjoy selling Mary Kay products – even with the nonsensical MyShop and ongoing product rollout fiascos – go ahead and do it. That will be the safest way that you can pocket a little bit of cash for your time. You will have no sales quotas and you’ll only have to worry about your own personal efforts. If you want to take a break from selling Mary Kay to take a vacation or deal with a family emergency, you’ll be able to do so without upending your entire business.
Once you get to sales director, you are “on” 24/7. There are no breaks from worrying about production from the first of the month to the last. Not only will you be concentrating on your own personal sales, you will have to monitor everyone in your unit to encourage them to order as much as they can. You will be laser-focused on new recruits to build up your unit’s production, especially since roughly a third of your unit will drop off each month.
And when things don’t come together for your unit, you will 100% lose money as a sales director. How? You’ll be forced to personally make up your unit’s ordering deficit in order to achieve production/car qualification/MK incentive. This will happen more often than you think, and soon you’ll find yourself in a credit card hole.
Also, take a good look at the recent Corporate move toward an affiliate sales model. As a director, normally the bulk of your unit production in any given month is from initial orders of new recruits. But with MyShop, there’s no need for a new consultant to purchase inventory. Mary Kay has cut out the legs from underneath sales directors by discouraging new consultants to stock inventory. It may be better for the new consultant, but it is death to a sales director.
I strongly encourage you to step back from pursuing sales director. It honestly would be the smartest business decision you could make at this point.